In the aircraft wheel and brake art, space considerations influence to a large extent the operation and construction of the brake. The brake is usually located interiorly of the wheel with the available envelope for the brake limited at one side by the aircraft wheel structure and at the other side by the aircraft landing gear strut. This limited envelope places limits on the piston stroke of the brake's fluid actuator and, consequently, brake life. The amount of disk wear that can be tolerated before the brake must be overhauled is dependent on the available piston stroke.
Known in the prior art are aircraft wheel and brake assemblies including a non-rotatable wheel support, a wheel mounted to the wheel support for rotation, and a disk pack having front and rear axial ends and alternating rotor and stator disks mounted with respect to the wheel support and wheel for relative axial movement. Each rotor disk is coupled to the wheel for rotation therewith and each stator disk is coupled to the wheel support against rotation. A back plate is located at the rear end of the disk pack and a brake head is located at the front end. The brake head houses a plurality of actuator pistons that extend to compress the disk pack against the back plate. Torque is taken out by the stator disks through a static torque tube or the like. As the disks wear, the stroke of the actuator pistons takes up the space created by the reduced axial thickness of the disk pack. The take up, however, is limited by the available piston stroke. Before the piston stroke is fully taken up, the brake must be overhauled to prevent loss of brake torque.